ADLG: Vapnartak (York, 01 Feb 2025)

Introduction
The trip began (too) early on Saturday morning at 06:00. I'd decided to drive across the M62 to my first event of 2025. The venue was excellent, but finding it was not as straightforward as I'd hoped. Then again I wasn't the only one; others nearly missed the start.

After a strong cup of tea, I managed to get the drive out of my head and prepared to play.

Event Summary

Event	Vapnartak
Date	1st February 2025
Rules Version	ADLG 4
Theme	Any army dated 01/02/1327; the coronation of Edward III.
Venue	Acaster Malbis Memorial Hall, YO23 2UJ
Army	Ilkhanid Mongols with Cilician Armenian Allies
Army list	270.0.7
Army date	1327
Entrants	18 players (all singles)
My results	10th of 18 with 171 points. 1 win, 1 draw & 1 defeat.
All results	Official grid | Web version

By the numbers
The Ilkhanid army has a average record in ADLG. As of 07 Dec 2024, the ADLG database records 160 games under V4: 54 wins and 59 defeats for a efficacy rating of 48.5%. The average efficacy for all armies is 50%: so statistically the army is only just below par. My efficacy rating for this event was 50.0%, in line with expectations.

Strategy & review
My list offers a good mix with heavy infantry, foot bows, medium knights and strong mongol cavalry (as you would expect). It is flexible, reliable and can pose problems to most opponents. I have learnt not to worry if my Armenians start as unreliable: the army is hard to beat without attacking them at some point.

The army's main advantage is surprise. Players see "Mongol" and automatically think "all cavalry". The knights and heavy foot come as a shock. All three of my opponents said they didn't expect this mix of troops.

My standard plan was to hold one wing with the Armenians, threatened the centre with the Franks and overwhelm the other flank with the main Mongol command. I was also prepared to draw my opponent forward onto the Franks and Armenians by advancing the Mongols then withdrawing before combat was joined. Feigned flight anyone?

For terrain, I wanted to narrow the battlefield with a coast to counteract the relatively small size of the army and provide a firm anchor for the Armenian foot. This happened twice and both times the coast was placed by my opponent!

As to my performance, this was the "nearly" competition. I was one point away from winning my first game (drawn) and three from winning the third (lost)! Even so, this was my best performance with this army. I'd never won a competitive game with it before. A definite improvement.

This army isn't a "line up and charge" army, it requires finesse, patience and a fair amount of command and control. Given this, I expected long games, and so it proved with all games lasting over two hours.

Reflecting on the games I didn't win, I was mainly hampered by poor runs of command dice which either slowed down my attack (1st game) or prevented me from rallying units under pressure (3rd game). I suppose the key learning point is to try an keep things as simple as possible for as long as possible.

Game #1

Opposition	John Hogan
Army	Tuareg
Army number	210
Army date	1327
Initiative	Lost
My Posture	Attacking
Terrain	Desert
Game time	02:33 (timed out)
Attrition Scores	23/15 to 27/28
Decisive	No
Points	52 to 43
Result	Draw

John is a happy chappie and games against him are always fun. He finished third overall with his 28 unit Tuareg army of impetuous camels. Thankfully, my knights aren't impetuous when faced with camels. The desert terrain didn't have any impact and even provided a left flank blocked by difficult and rough terrain. John found it hard to rout the Ilkhanids and had little response to their shooting. I was 1 point away from a win when timed was called. Had play been a little quicker throughout the game I may have won.

Game #2

Opposition	Robin Jackson
Army	Catalan Company
Army number	262
Army date	1327
Initiative	Lost
My Posture	Attacking
Terrain	Mountains
Game time	02:05
Attrition Scores	10/23 to 26/26
Decisive	Yes
Points	92 to 18
Result	Win

This game was fought in the mountains! The table was really narrow with a coast (Robin) and some impassable terrain mid-table next to the coast (me). It was so narrow I decided to flank march the Franks: they arrived in short order. Only the Franks and Mongols were active because the Armenians proved unreliable. I had some stunning shooting early on routing four units of light troops. Towards the end the Armenians finally joined in ensuring a first competitive victory for the Ilkhanids.

Game #3

Opposition	Charles Gronau
Army	Samurai
Army number	221
Army date	1327
Initiative	Won
My Posture	Attacking
Terrain	Plains
Game time	02:15
Attrition Scores	23/23 to 19/23
Decisive	Yes
Points	27 to 83
Result	Loss

Another game, another coast. Charles said this was his most challenging game. The Mongols swamped an open left, but couldn't capitalise (poor command dice). I killed two generals! Towards the end, I set up a 5-0 combat. The Samurai were 3 points from breaking. We drew with a 6-1 dice roll! He moved next getting the point needed to break my army. I conceded as time was nearly up. I should have played on. There were combats to resolve. I may have scraped some extra points. Lesson learnt.

Closing remarks
The games were interesting in both the terrain and troops faced. I thought both the army and I coped well. I wasn't rusty at all, despite not playing since October . More importantly, I enjoyed using this army and I think it has potential to do even better. We'll see.

To add to my "workload", I attempted to use my tournament scoring spreadsheet to record the event (in parallel with the organisers). I learnt that if your games don't end quickly, running an event is really hard! In fact I failed to keep pace with the organisers, but they had at least a 20 minute start.

This was my first time at this event. The venue was bright, clean and warm; if remote. Driving cross country early in the morning wasn't ideal. It was a good job I was staying in York overnight: I was shattered by the time I'd driven to the B&B. If there's a next time, I'll think about travelling the day before.